Isaiah, 41

1.Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew [their] strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.

2.Who raised up the righteous [man] from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made [him] rule over kings? he gave [them] as the dust to his sword, [and] as driven stubble to his bow.

3.He pursued them, [and] passed safely; [even] by the way [that] he had not gone with his feet.

4.Who hath wrought and done [it], calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I [am] he.

5.The isles saw [it], and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.

6.They helped every one his neighbour; and [every one] said to his brother, Be of good courage.

7.So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, [and] he that smootheth [with] the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It [is] ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, [that] it should not be moved.

22.Let them bring [them] forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they [be], that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.

23.Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye [are] gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold [it] together.

24.Behold, ye [are] of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination [is he that] chooseth you.

25.I have raised up [one] from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as [upon] morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.

26.Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, [He is] righteous? yea, [there is] none that sheweth, yea, [there is] none that declareth, yea, [there is] none that heareth your words.

27.The first [shall say] to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.

28.For I beheld, and [there was] no man; even among them, and [there was] no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.

29.Behold, they [are] all vanity; their works [are] nothing: their molten images [are] wind and confusion.